Climate Change Action

TIME published an assortment of articles relating to Global Warming and the Environment that included the article that is excerpted below (it's worth reading in its entirety for the details). Having lived in Germany, I can vouch for the fact that Germany does NOT have an abundance of sunny or windy days. In fact, it seemed the winter was rather grey and dreary, but Germany is surpassing the US because of our obstinate attachment to pseudo-science, like that which Jeff Jacoby writes.

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It's time to replace propaganda of that sort with action.

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Lessons From Germany
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Clustered along the banks of the River Spree in central Berlin, Germany's parliament buildings are designed to make the most of natural light and the flow of air. Electricity and heat are provided by biofuel generators in the basement. The excess heat is then stored in great underground chasms to warm the buildings during winter — when cold from the outdoors is stored underground to cool the buildings again in summer. Even the Reichstag, originally built in the 19th century, now gets 60% of its power from renewable energy. So when lawmakers surveyed their environmental performance last month, you might have expected some self-congratulatory pats on the back. Their ruling? Not good enough. By the end of 2008, if all goes to plan, the Reichstag will run entirely on renewables.
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Between 1990 and 2005, Germany's total greenhouse-gas emissions declined 18%; in the same period, those of the U.S. went up 16%. But Germany's impressive performance has been less about innovation than about implementation. The government has left little to chance. An eco-tax on fuel discourages petroleum use.
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Germany's emphasis on renewables has done more than help meet its climate-change goals. It has been an economic success, too. There are now nearly 250,000 Germans employed in the renewable-energy sector, and renewable-energy exports have boomed. "We are going to prove that climate-change [action] and economic prosperity are not contradictions, but are mutually dependent,"...